#duja

[jewishcissiekj]

you know what? I don't *transparent pngs your handmaidens*

[alexversenaberrie]

Duja ~ a smart scout, friend and handmaiden of Senator Amidala

Duja entered Amidala’s service sometime after she joined the Senate as she and Padmé mourned the death of Cordé together after the bombing but left it prior to the end of the Clone Wars. She helped Amidala decipher an unintelligible communication from an angry ambassador. She died on Batuu while investigating a Separatist factory on Mokivj, prompting Padmé to travel out to the distant planet to figure out what happened to her.

Duja is shown while she is getting ready for her last journey in the uniform, which she wore during the secret mission. Except of the travelling bag, there is a holo of planet Batuu and her ship Possibility. On the painting are also other elements showing her skills: Naboo royal pistol shows that she was trained for battle, she knew Meese Caulf language and cared for her fellow handmaiden Cordé, where we can see her white robe and her holo.

Duja wears a strange red brooch, it was purposefully designed to appear amateurishly-handmade like a child's gift to their mother (It bore an inscription reading "mom" in the Aurebesh language.), but in reality, it served as a beckon call for her transport ship, the Possibility.

She and Amidala discussed its sentimental value, including that it was made to symbolize the former's future hopes to settle down and have a child who might make a similarly fashioned gift. For several years, Duja wore her brooch often despite multiple individuals telling her it was unfashionable.

When Duja's body was discovered, Amidala later recited a poem to remember her, which can be seen on the right, foreshadowing her near end.

#star wars paintings  |  SW Paintings | #star wars handmaidens

Handmaidens: Yané I Sabé | Eirtaé | Motté | Ellé | Versé | Saché | Fé | Karté | Teckla | Rabé | Cordé | Duja | Dané | Dormé | Miré

[comicwaren]

From Star Wars: Thrawn - Alliances #001

Art by Pat Olliffe, Andrea Di Vito and Rachelle Rosenberg

Written by Timothy Zahn and Jody Houser

[duffleandshuffle]

You know what'd be great? A story about Padme's former handmaidens keeping her spirit alive during the Empire's reign. Padme really got the short end of the stick and she deserves to be fucking remembered. Plus the handmaidens were badass.

[nabooro]

Oh my god I cannot express how much I love this conlang, I have so many questions and it makes me so inspired to write things based on Naboo (which is also me asking if I may use the things you've created here (with credit of course) in my own writing?).

(also if ever you want an (almost) comprehensive list of Naboo terms I do actually have that list somewhere because I myself spent three days making it and...never used it)

But back to the fact that you have taken a world that's seen a little bit in the films and made it so beautiful and big and added meaning to things said in the films - I find myself absolutely amazed at the hard work and thought you've put into this.

I do have...a lot of questions lol which I made note of as I was going through the blog, but I won't ask them all now - but there was one thing that's been bugging me and that I haven't been able to think of a satisfying answer for yet and that is about Duja, Teckla and Motée's names.

So why Duja and Teckla keep their original names and not take the é at the end? And why Motée is spelt with an extra e? I was wondering if you had any thoughts on that!

Anyway, thank you for sharing all of this I guess?? I have had such a good morning going through it all lol

Hi! Thank you so much for your interest and enthusiasm for this silly little conlang of mine. I've been seeing your notes come in and I am genuinely so delighted to see how keen you are on it!!

Re: the three names!

Teckla isn't from Naboo. The name changing thing is common practice for handmaidens because of the interchangeability of identity and the sort of giving up of their individuation. It's a cultural practice that none of the others - even someone like Dormé who takes up the role for Padmé's senate role and not her period as queen - would really question doing, just naturally. However it's not something that'd occur to Teckla, not something Padmé would ever ask her to do, and sidenote she's never actually acting as Padmé anyway as far as I remember.

Duja... I'll be honest, I had just never heard of her until your ask! There are a lot of sort of canon-ish characters from all these novels and comics and audiobooks and I don't listen to them or read them so I just don't know them.

From a Doylist perspective, I assume it's that somebody forgot the pattern. That quite bothers me, actually. All of Padme's royalty-era handmaidens rather famously have that é ending.

From a Watsonian perspective... it does say on the wiki she was a former handmaiden of Padmé's, so it could just be that after she gave up being a handmaiden, she went back to using her original name. I think this would be a practice that quite a few people went to if they were no longer acting in capacity as a handmaiden, or for a number of other personal reasons, including but not limited to having had a harrowing time as a handmaiden or not wanting to be identified as one of Amidala's people.

Re: Moteé... the name I've assigned her, Motil, is derived from the phrase "to grow wings", and the original phrase mohu tenote, when it is used to construct a name in the é form, maintains the e which gets turned into i in Motil. So there you go!

I'd love to answer any other questions or curiosities you have! Thank you again for your enthusiasm!

[twodragonsflying]

Maybe the real Thrawn books are the side characters we latch onto along the way.

[brehatano]

I have a lot of feelings about the royal handmaidens of Naboo.

[littleredwritingrob]

Ambuscade

noun: an ambush. verb: to attack from a concealed position.

For the New SW Canon Discord prompts: Senator Skywalker Warning: this is evil and gets a bit dark

“No one knows the truth about Senator Skywalker”

It was those eight words, spoken by a young togruta girl in the back of a dimly lit lower level Coruscanti diner that set Duja on her path. As Senator Amidala’s aide and trusted confidant, it was her responsibility to not only protect her mistress from threats but also actively seek out weaknesses in the political landscape. The recent addition to the Galactic Senate, rising political star from Tatooine and new protege of the Chancellor, Senator Anakin Skywalker, appeared to be a man without weakness. So naturally Duja jumped at the chance for any dirt on the freshman politician. 

When he had first sauntered onto Coruscant’s politician scene with his immaculate features and honeyed voice, most had dismissed him, Duja included; an inexperienced speaker from a backwater desert planet. Since, he proved himself to be an recurring obstacle for Padmé and her allies on the senate floor, rallying support for Palpatine from across a bloc of long written off outer rim seats. But the charming senator kepting gaining influence, neither criticism nor scandals sticking to his teflon smile and the HoloNet was lapping it up. Before long, Skywalker was somehow both the champion of the outer rim and darling of the public. 

That made him more than an obstacle, that made him a threat. 

Especially since Duja was sure Palpatine was pulling the strings. She just didn’t know how. So when an anonymous source had offered to meet, Duja jumped on the chance. Her contact was secretive, but that was hardly unusual, offering only those few words of warning and an address to an industrial complex in The Works, not far away. Even with a veil on, the togruta seemed at least vaguely familiar, a staffer in Skywalker’s offer perhaps. She would have to check the office’s records later, for the moment, Duja had a lead. The responsible thing to do would be to investigate in the morning, or at least let Padmé know where she was going, but if this was some kind of trap then Duja needed to keep her senator as insulated from it as possible. Besides the address was only half an hour away by airspeeder.

Coruscant was never dark, not completely. It was impossible, layers upon layers of homes, shops and streets created a neon ambiance that permeated every nook and cranny of the city planet. But among the looming smoke stacks and disused warehouses, it was as dark as any place could be. The moment Duja set foot in the complex, every fibre of her being would tell her to leave, to run. But she didn’t.

Just as he expected.

She was brave, dedicated too. Some part of him admired that, not that it mattered. He watched from the shadows as Duja crept forward slowly, peering into the darkness, only a small light in her outstretched hand illuminating the way.

He could smell the fear.

Yet she crept forward still. Senator Amidala had good taste in aides obviously, most snivelling sycophants that worked for senators in hopes of a taste of power would have turned tail and ran by now. Duja was diligent, verging on fanatical and that’s why she was here. She would have found something eventually, some small thread to tug on until the whole tapestry he had spent the last two years weaving frayed and came apart. She represented a problem, one that would have to be dealt eventually.

Taking once last moment to revel in the fear, he pounced.

“What have you done?” A deep, snarling voice cut through the darkness of her groggy mind. Duja blinked a few times, trying to focus her blurring vision. She could make out a dark figure, back turned towards her, their silhouette illuminated by the faint blue light of a hologram.

“Nothing to worry about.” The figure said, a certain smugness evident in their voice, “Just dealing with a minor inconvenience.”

“Again?” The hologram’s voice snarled with irritance. “Make it quick, we have work to do, my apprentice.”

The figure chuckled and gave a shallow bow to the hologram, “Yes, master.”

The blue light evaporated, leaving only a few dim bulbs to cloak the room in a dark orange hue. Duja groaned slightly as feeling started to return to her limbs, only for her to find them bound. A panic rose in her chest as the figure turned towards her and into the light. In the orange glow Anakin Skywalker’s signature smile suddenly morphed into the menacing grin of a barghest on a hunt. Something about his movement seemed off, his usual carefree posture was suddenly tensed, coiled like a tight spring. But that wasn’t the worst thing.

His eyes.

Yellow eyes, gleaming with malice through the darkness and boring into Duja’s very own. The closer he moved to her, the harder her heart tried to escape her chest. 

“Ahsoka.” He said calmly, eyes still focused on Duja, “We’ll need a vehicle, untraceable”

She tried to close her eyes but they remained transfixed. She tried to scream but the noise died in her throat. She felt like a prisoner in her own mind.

The sound of a lightsaber echoed against the dirty metal walls, not the subtle, familiar sound of a Jedi’s weapon, it was almost closer to a screech of protest. Even as she was bathed in red light, Duja couldn’t break eye contact. With a sick smile, he twirled the blade in his hand, making a final proclamation to her.

“No one knows the truth about Senator Skywalker, and no one ever shall.”